Walking With A Ghost
by Sidewalkspitter
Summary: Mona Lisa Proctor tells her life story to two lowlifes. Of the Marauders, her nastily ended romances, the Disowned Childrens Club, a runin with Mad Eye Moody, and many other additions to her miserable life today. Read if you want, I don't really care.
1. Beginnings

Walking With A Ghost

Chapter One-Beginnings

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The tavern was full of rowdy laughter, the clacking of mugs, and the scraping of the wood chairs against the dusty floor as snowflakes whirled by in circles outside foggy windows. It was late, on Christmas Eve. The only people there, who were actually quite a lot, were those who had no family for various reasons, or those who just didn't wish to see their families, and those whose family was already there. The scent of cigars filled the room, since almost everybody there smoked, from the pretty girls who would offer their "services" to those willing to pay, to the occasional strangers who would only stop for a five minute drink. The room buzzed with talk too, about what the Ministry screwed up today, how the Tornadoes were fixing the England Quidditch semi-finals, who was doing what with who, and of the ever lingering talk of the Dark Lord. 

The door swung open, pulling in a sharp and cold draft along with a flurry of snowflakes. The visitor stumped inside, and dully closed the door behind her. She wore a thick black cloak with endless folds and a rather large hood, which cast a shadow over the wearer's face. The visitor tugged it off, revealing a rather beautiful woman, or a witch. She was wearing a long and fitted black turtleneck shirt, with a sleeveless leather jacket over it. She also wore faded jeans and Converse sneakers, along with gloves, a knit scarf, and a hat. Her hair was auburn and flecked with snow, and her eyes were of the palest of blues. She was beautiful, but her eyes had been hardened over her lifetime of about thirty to fourty years. They were the only thing that showed her age, from their look of lost hope. They showed cold hatred, nothing more and nothing less. Hatred of the world and what it had done to her and become, and of herself for letting the world change her.

Squinting around the bar, she spotted the mop of straggly ginger hair atop a squat wizard with bloodshot, baggy eyes from lack of sleep who was sitting at the bar with a tall cup of beer. "_I really need to get glasses..." _the witch mentally reminded herself.

"Hey, 'Dung!" she called out.

Mundungus Fletcher pratically fell out of his seat at the sound of the witch's clear, carrying voice. "Can't you ever be quiet? I might die a peaceful death in my old age in my sleep."

She plopped down on the bar stool next to him, and the bartender came over. "So, what can I get for you kids?" Aberforth wheezed through his many bandages, while wiping out a mug with a grungy old rag which really only made it even dirtier.

"Just give me some firewhiskey." she muttered as she pulled out a couple sickles from her pocket. "Just give me however much this is worth," and she pushed the money towards him, and he went in back to fetch the liquor.

"Ahh, no Mona!" the thief seated next to her said. "You always get so depressed around Christmas in paticular. Why don't you ever let me take you to the Order's Headquarters so you can have a fun holiday?"

The bartender returned with three tall bottles of the whiskey, and Mona popped the first one open and sipped it. "I have my reasons."

"Which are highly classified and you will never tell the general public, let alone us your closest friends!" the bartender said then pointed an accusing finger at her. "This year, you will tell us your whole, miserable past, Mona Lisa!"

Mona Lisa narrowed her pale eyes. "What makes you think that my past has made me miserable?"

"Oh, come on! You make a decent living," Mona snorted, and 'Dung rolled his eyes. "I said decent, not honorable. And you're pretty enough to find a decent boy to go off and marry and be happy with! In fact, I think I could comply to your obviously high standards..." he said while leaning in closer to Mona Lisa, letting her smell his scent of alcohol mixed with stale tobacco.

She pratically gagged. "Thanks, but no." Mundungus looked only slightly disappointed.

There was a pause, while everybody sipped their rum, beer, or whatever, and the band came out and struck up a tune. There was a guy with long greasy hair who was obviously going to try to sing, and a few others on guitars, and one on piano, and another on drums. They were a pretty motley bunch, but mostly everybody who came into the Hog's Head was.

The drag queen man in the front tapped the microphone, took a deep breath and began to sing, and the band to play. The guitars were out of tune, but Mona considered them fairly decent.

_"Summer has come and passed  
The innocent can never last  
Wake me up when September ends _

Like my fathers come to pass  
Seven years has gone so fast  
Wake me up when September ends."

"You SUCK!" someone yelled from the crowd.

Mona turned around in her stool. "Ah, shut up!" she called back, and the band continued to play.

Mundungus chimed in. "Your MOM sucks!" he laughed. The bartender rolled his eyes at the comment.

_"Here comes the rain again  
Falling from the stars  
Drenched in my pain again  
Becoming who we are _

As my memory rests  
But never forgets what I lost  
Wake me up when September ends."

Everybody turned back to their groups and conversations.

Mona Lisa slowly spoke. "You're right. A lot of things have happened to make me miserable."

"Care to embellish?" Mundungus prompted.

"Not really." Mona Lisa grumbled.

"Come on!" the bartender grunted. "I do this sort of support-group stuff all the time!"

Mona groaned. "I'm not a drug addict!"

Aberforth raised a finger. "But there is an incident or two in your foggy past that is holding you back from your full potential!" he said.

_"Summer has come and passed  
The innocent can never last  
Wake me up when September ends _

Ring out the bells again  
Like we did when spring began  
Wake me up when September ends."

"Please tell! We all want you to be happy!" 'Dung pleaded.

"Fine." Mona Lisa threw up her hands in defeat. "I know I'm going to regret this..."

"Beer on the house for being nice for a change!" Aberforth slammed down another bottle on the bar, and pulled up a stool in front of the duo to listen. "So, let's start at the beginning of whenever you feel nessecary." And he and 'Dung both attentively stared at the gorgeous witch, along with half the rest of the tavern, which they soon noticed.

_"Here comes the rain again  
Falling from the stars  
Drenched in my pain again  
Becoming who we are." _

"Hey, back off! She's mine!" Mundungus called out, and wrapped a protective arm around her waist. Suprisingly, Mona Lisa didn't hex him out of creation, but she leaned her head into his shoulder. She was not looking foward to telling her entire, sad life story. Over the fire place the clock chimed ten o'clock.

Mona sighed. "Hell, I don't even know where to begin..." she murmered softly to the two men who had come to be her friends in the past months.

_"As my memory rests  
But never forgets what I lost  
Wake me up when September ends_

_Summer has come and passed  
The innocent can never last  
Wake me up when September ends."_

_

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_

Author's Ending Notes

Hope everybody liked it! I'm trying to write this, I've basically given up on 'Misfits' for now...maybe one day I'll write it again...and I'm still posting my other story on another site. I'll get it uploaded on here someday...I hope I caught all the grammer and spelling errors on here, but if I didn't, I don't really care so don't but me about it.

Please submit nice reviews! I got only "You suck" reviews before, and only one nice one on my last story! Wow, I am sounding really happy and sweet today. Wow. Where is the bitter, sarcastic bitch that I know we all love! But I've been planning this story for a long time, and yes, it is a Marauders story. In case you are really slow, I'm trying a new format. Mona Lisa's telling her story, so the majority of this will be her memories. But the ending won't be, but I don't even know how I'm going to end this! I just have the first part planned out, and a hazy outline. The 'present' is in the Hog's Head. Okay, you had to be really stupid not to catch that. So, whatevers. But I love 'Dung, had to put him in here! Peace out with inhalers for now, I'll try to update soon!


	2. Chapter 2

Walking With A Ghost

Chapter Two-When There's Nowhere Else to Run

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On a muggy, London summer day, I stepped out of my rattling motel room with nothing on my mind but Meryl Streep and the strawberry ice cream waiting for me at the parlor down the street. I was completely worry free. Sort of. Being worry free doesn't really exist, I guess. Everybody has something to worry about, people just pretend they don't. Some people worry about their children, or their schooling, or if they'll get evicted today, or if their grandma's going to die, or wondering how to scrape up enough monet to eat a half decent meal today. A lot of the time you have to just suck it up and move on, or you'll become an old lady who lives in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do except her quilting and taking care of eighty-two cats. But anyways, I was just about as worry free as a seventeen year old witch can get. 

You're probably wondering who exactly I am. Name's Mona Lisa Proctor, Hogwarts student extrodinaire. I do realize my name is unusual to say the least, and yes I am named after Da Vinci's famous painting. You see, my aunt named me. Which in itself explains a lot, since she supposadly illegaly used a time turner to travel back to the Rennasance period and met Leonardo DaVinci himself, and fell in love. So, she named me Mona Lisa, but I'm happy because the other choice was Eloise. So I am grateful to my aunt for stepping in and naming me. My friends always seem to say I have a Mona Lisa smile, like I know a secret that nobody else knows.

Where was I? Yes, my friends. I've always been friends with Sirius Black, our families are both "pure blood." They're a bunch of bloody morons if you ask me. There's also James Potter, the Lily-stalker, and Remus Lupin, who's probably my closest friend. I share a dormitory with Lily Evans, who doesn't seem to care for me very much but I still like her. I don't really talk much to Peter Pettigrew, but since he's friends with James I'm sure he's a good guy.

Yes, I am a Marauder, as we call ourselves. I may not be in on all of their little adventures, but I am the fifth marauder. At first I opted for #2, but Sirius wanted to be #2, so we had this nasty duel in our first year, which mainly consisted of us chucking rocks at each other until one hit me and knocked me out for four hours. So I am Marauder #5. And I am not immature, Sirius started it.

Back to me. I have ice colored eyes, that are slightly blue. I also have auburn hair, and I'm about the average height. I love Quidditch (I play Keeper) and was born in October, on Friday the Thirteenth. I also love sausage. I even had this dream, where there was this sausage, and it was flying around! So I chased it on my broom like a snitch, then I caught it, and woke up! I didn't even get to eat it! Bummer.

I strutted along the street, saluting Severus with my favorite finger, and listening to the slapping of my sneakers on the pavement. Trains whistled, windows rattled, owls flew everywhere, people talked and shouted and swore and gossiped, it was paradise. Diagon Alley, the best place for a witch to be. I came apon one of my favorite shops, Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor!

"Hello Mona! Ice cream again for breakfast?" Florean said as he smiled at me from beside the freezers.

"Yep." I shook off my knee length red leather jacket, and sat at on a tall stool at the makeshift bar.

"Here ya are, sausage flavored ice cream." He watched me eat it in large gulps. "I still don't know how you can eat that."

I was still shoveling the blessed dessert into my mouth, and just grinned and nodded at him. Then he leaned his chin on his elbow to talk to me more. "So, what are you doin' around here?"

I gulped down the last of my ice cream and pushed the bowl away. "I didn't wanna go to my family for too long. I might never come back out!" I gave a nervous laugh, and Florean raised his bushy eyebrows. "Besides, I broke my wand last term and I need a new one."

Florean's eyebrows disappeared into his balding mop of salt-and-pepper hair. "May I ask how?"

My old, Mona Lisa smirk returned. "Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies." I teased, and tossed two knuts on the counter to pay for my sugary breakfast. Then I gathered my coat, and clicked out the door. Almost instantly I was hailed by a large, ugly, brown owl, with a letter bearing my name written in an untidy scrawl. I gently poked it open, I didn't want to unleash another lettered hex from my mother, I didn't want to have to grow my hair back again. Of course, the bird bit me as if to tell me to get on with it.

"Ouch!" I sucked my finger, and ripped it open.

_Mona-_

_I sent a letter to your family's house, and got a biting Howler back, so I hope you're at the Leaky Cauldron. Anyways, Sirius is staying with me and currently has his head stuck in the sunroof...oh dear. It's really rather funny! He's thrashing around, yelling at me to help him, and cursing, and yelling what he's gonna do to me when he gets free...which he is SO not going to do! I refuse to be castrated! This isn't funny now!_

_That reminds me of why I'm writing to you, not the sunroof, but Sirius. He wants to come stay with you for the last two weeks of summer to show off his new shiny flying motorcycle, and flirt with you, and do ridiculous Sirius-y things Ouch! Okay, I do to since he just threw a book at me with his foot. He also wants to fly you around "romantically" on his motorcycle, which I repeatdly told him won't work since you are afraid of flying on anything but a broomstick. Don't blame me for any future visits to St. Mungo's, and don't say I didn't warn you._

_Meet us Wednesday in front of Olivander's. I wanna watch you hunt for a new wand! I heard it took 3 hours to find your first one, that's insane! Sirius still won't tell me what happened to the old one, says it's "classified." Bull shit, you're going to tell me!_

_See you soon, James Potter_

I smiled at seeing my old friends again, and walked back towards the Leaky Cauldron. I'd need lots of energy to deal with those two psycos tomorrow, but I couldn't wait all the same. So I strolled back the way I'd come, feeling like a puffy cloud high in the sky.

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Author's Ending Notes

Where are the reviews! I HAVE HAD NONE YET AT ALL! On my last story, I got five in one day! Do I really suck that badly? Waaaahhh! hysterical sobbing I've been working hard on this! Okay, I haven't, but still! I'd just really appreciate it, guys. Anyways, you'd really have to be a moron not to be able to recognize (this is the last time I'm going to explain this) that Mona Lisa is telling her story at the bar, but I'm writing her memories in first person. It's just easier, and more intersting to me, and hopefully to you too! Anyways, you'll get to see why she ended up how she has, as a bottom-scum crook. All I ask for is just for you to write a really short something, just to let me know that you have read this, and if you're going to come back to read more! That's it! It's not even two sentances!

Some me news: I went to the eyedoctor (Oh! The horror!) for my check up thing, and I get to get my new glasses! Hopefully before Friday, when I leave on vacation with my father to New Jersey to see his family. (My parents are divorced, so I live with my mom and all that stuff...I won't go into details, but I'm really glad my dad's not around us so much anymore...) Or maybe we're leaving on next Thursday, I really have no idea, he never tells me anything about it. But, just please write the review that answers the following questions:

1.) Do you like this story at all? and 2.) Will you come back to read more?

Thanks and peace out!


	3. Chapter 3

Walking With A Ghost

Chapter 2

I walked down the dirty cobblestone street, which was mostly empty since it was still fairly early in the morning (around 8) I pushed open a shop door, which issued a fain tinkle from the bell attached to it as I looked around my personal haven.

A lare room, stacked from floor to ceiling, wall to wall, with books stood before me! There were heaps everywhere, spell booksa nd biographies, plays and fiction novels and history books, packed into the tiny shop! It was rather small in width, the room was only about ten feet on each side. But the walls reached up like a cathedral, never seeming to end, forever stacked with books. Some of them were so high up they were near impossiable to reach, these tended to be books filled with dark magic. But what I loved most was that they sold wizard's books and Muggle books too! Muggle stories, Muggle history! There was so much to learn, and so little time. You could literally spend a lifetime in this place, maybe even two. James and Sirius are my best friends, but they just can't understand the feeling I have when I step into Jenkin's Used Books.

I remembered all the hours and even days that Remus and I had spent here, streached out on the musty carpet, reading the lazy days of summer away together.

Slowly, a crooked and narrow ladder supporting a thin man soared down to me. The owner smiled, showing several rotting teeth, and he had a whispy white mop on his bald, pale and sunken head. Jenkins, the shop owner, may have looked creepy, but he is just sunlight deprived.

"Hello! And welcome back, Miss Mona. Where be Mister Remus?" he spoke in a half whisper, blowing his thin, white mustashe with every breath.

"On holiday, I'm afraid. I think he's currently in France." I half shouted at him, since I knew from experiance that the old bookworm was nearly deaf.

He nodded faintly to me. "Such a fine yound man. You make a lovely couple..." he wheezed, and I snorted loudly.

"Yeah right!" I was hysterically laughing, very loudly. I was even nearing tears! "You really are insane...d'you have my orders?" I wiped the tears of suprise and laughter from my eyes. Where did he get that notion?

His eyes sparkled like an old grandfather talking to his favorite kid. "Oh, yes. I'll go and get them." And he disappeared into the back through a creaking mahogany door.

I looked around the shop, and examined one of my flawlessly manicured fingernails. Me and Remus? Together! Honestly... We were best friends. like James and Sirius, but that would never work out. It could ruin one of the few friendships I could always count on.

"Here you are," Old Jenkins popped from nowhere at my back, carrying my textbooks for my last year of school. I nearly jumped, but I was used to his popping out of nowhere by now. "Eleven galleons."

I paid for my books, and headed back to my motel room to get a head start on reading. I'd have a lot more free time in Hogwarts if I learned a few spells now. So, I propped open my herbology book and began to read about hte venemous tentacula.

Soon, there was a crash downstairs as a drunk hobbled up the steps, cursing enough to make the most seasoned bartender pale. I blinked, and looked up. Outside my foggy and cracked window, it was pitch dark and my digital watch read 4:34 AM! Lily had given it to me for Christmas last year, since she thought it might help me be on time for class and quidditch pratice. It didn't, but it was still a useful watch. I yawned, and collapsed on my pillow next to my books which were spread across the room and bed, open and in disarray. I vaguely recalled that James was coming to Olivander's tomorrow, but it didn't quite register so I didn't set my alarm, and continued to read an intersting bit on the magical properties of seven.

But my eyes slit shut, and I fell into a deep sleep on my bed of books with my face stuck to my arithmancy textbook. Within seconds I was in a coma-like dreamland filled with sausages.

(The Next Morning)

"Mona..." A voice hazily drifted into my brain, but didn't register. The sausages were so nice...

"Mona Lisa..." I felt a small poke, but I didn't want to wake up! The sausages cuddled with me, I didn't want to leave! Couldn't the mean voice just go away?

"It's not working...damn bookworm read herself to sleep!" I was now half suspended in counciness. Sausages...

"WAKE UP TIME!" A voice yelled, and a huge force crashed on top of me, jerking me awake!

"AAAAAAAHHHH!" My eyes flew open as I was crushed under a very strong person who was seated on top of me in a position that was slightly disturbing to say the least. I could barely breathe, and my eyes were almost popping.

"Hey, she's awake!" a new person said from the corner. The blinds flew open, and bright noon sunlight burst in the dark room, blinding me. I blearly gazed around the room, and spotted a wizard with messy black hair, and a thin, wiry frame lounging sideways in my armchair!

"James? Huh?" I muttered, rubbing my face. Then the weight on me shifted as I stared up at the other wizard who was currently sitting on me. He too had black hair, but bronze skin, and large, adorable brown eyes. Yep, Sirius Black was currently straddling me.

"MONA!" he joyfully yelped as he lunged at me, squishing several internal organs in the process.

"What th-" I couldn't finish, since my handsome friend was squeezing me so hard that air was crushed from my lungs and my lips were turning blue.

James was trying to stifle his giggles at us. "Mate, I think you're strangling her."

"Oh. Right." He let go of me, and I gasped for air in pain. James was still laughing. "And maybe you should...um...dismount?" He cracked up, unable to contain his laughter any longer.

At that moment, Sirius was still straddling my stomach, propped up on his elbows. His shaggy dark hair hung from his face and gracefully pooled on my forehead and my pillow. His gorgeous brown eyes gazed into my crystal ones, and I could feel his breath on mine.

"Nah, I think I like it here fine." he carelessly taunted, and my moment was ruined.

Disgusted, I brought my knee up into his groin as hard as I could. Which was really, really hard.

"ARG!" he yelled in pain and curled into a fetal position on the floor. James roared with laughter, and I would have too if I hadn't been gasping for air.

"Rejection!" James wiped tears from his eyes, only to laugh more. Sirius glared at us, and all I could do was massage my stomach. Sirius was still on the floor, obviously in pain, and I felt a little bad. I rolled off my bed and offered him my hand.

"Sorry," I apologized.

"So'm I." he grunted, and took my hand as I struggled to hold on as he stood up. Why did I have to be the runt of the family?

Now that I was standing up, we had a good view of each other. Since last year I had, well, "filled in" more. I now looked more womanly, since I had developed more shape over the summer in several places. James was now sitting cross-legged on the dusty wooden floor, watching us, and Sirius was goggling at me, with his mouth open and all.

I reached up and used my right hand to close it. "What're you doing here?"

James answered "We got here around eight, and waited at Olivander's, but you didn't show. So we came looking for you, and Tom said you were up here, and we let ourselves in." he said simply.

"Yeah, and you were pratically passed out on this heap of textbooks!" Sirius exclaimed through my hand. I nodded, and stifled a yawn.

"Good to see you." I was in a better mood now, and was able to smile fondly at my two fellow Marauders. "But I need to get dressed."

James jumped off the floor. "Meet you downstairs!" he chirped, and nearly skipped from the room. Sirius didn't follow, but was still eyeing me.

I raised my eyebrow. "Just cause I don't have a wand doesn't mean I'm not deadly." I motioned towards the door, and Sirius smiled at me and half stumbled out. I rolled my eyes. "Boys," I thought and buisied myself with finding clean clothes.

I picked a pair of worn jeans and a purple tank top from the mess of the room, and put on my long black gloves that I had cut the fingers out of. Then I braided my hair and flipped it over my shoulder, reaching for my hat and sneakers.

Then I caught my reflection in the cracked mirror. I looked so...average! I threw my hat aside, and frantically tried to pin my hair in a bun. But I paused in mid-clip and thought: "Since when did I try to impress my Sirius?"

I shrugged, and finished clipping my hair up. Then I jammed on my sneakers and ran downstairs to meet the day, and what it brought me on a flying motorcycle.


	4. Chapter 4

Walking With A Ghost

Chapter 4

As I clunked down the creaky stairs, I saw that James was now eatng a piece of toast, and Sirius was shamelessly flirting with a waitress. I scowled, and plopped down next to James on the grimy wooden bench, glaring at Sirius.

"If I had a wand, I'd hex him out of existance," I darkly growled, looking so murderous that a few customers stepped away several feet for safety. James tried to say something, but choked on his breakfast. Sirius nearly skipped over and slapped his best friend so hard on the back that James' forehead bounced off the table.

"Oh, sorry mate." he said. Then he looked at me. "What happened to your hair?" Sirius tactlessly asked me, and I felt like I'd been slapped. Nobody insults Mona Lisa Proctor and gets away with it! I immediately fumbled for my wand, remembering once again that I didn't have one. So I settled for something else. I picked up James' hot coffee, and dumped it on Sirius' head, grinning evily to hide my hurt ego.

"Arg! What's wrong with you?" Sirius howled, flushing in humiliation as the entire pub laughed at him. I stalked away angrily, to wait for them in the alley. If anybody said anything remotely insulting to me at that moment, I might have been arrested for manslaughter. I looked up at the blue sky, and I wished that I could just run. Like I always do. How I ran from my family, from my friends, from even myself. Even though I'm standing still, I still feel like I'm running at a hundred miles an hour, but still not getting anywhere.

A few minutes later, they joined me, Sirius looking very upset seeing as the two things he prided himself most on had nearly been ruined by the same person in less than twenty minutes. On the other hand, James was grinning like it was his birthday. I always showed his friend his place, like he sometimes told me mine.

"Let's go wand shopping!" James cheered, leading his grumpy friends down the narrow street to Olivander's. Of course, the bakery was one the way, drawing Mona inside by the aroma of cookies away from her friends who patiently waited outside.

"Hello!" the blonde counter girl exclaimed, and had a name tag that read Chrissy on it. "What can I get you?"

"Three cookies," I decided to give James and Sirius a treat, inhaling the sweet aroma.

"They your friends?" she asked while packaging the sweets. I nodded. "That one's hot. He single?" Chrissy jokingly pointed at Sirius, and I rolled my eyes. Outside, the employee spotted the two teenagers whispering and pointing at me, obviously plotting.

Then Sirius burst through the door, grabbing me around the waist and pushing me into the counter, forcing his mouth onto mine with a passion-filled kiss with tounge and everything. I was too shocked to even slap him, I just sat there! Chrissy the cashier was staring open mouthed at us, just as shocked as I was. Then as fast as he arrived, Sirius was gone. But first he was sure to snatch the cookies from me, leaving us there to drool and pant.

Chrissy stared at me, and I was just staring into space faintly, clinging to the counter since my legs had turned to jelly from post-traumatic shock!

"Good thing he's gone," she told me. "If he'd been in here one second longer, the chocolate would have melted off the eclaires." I whole heartadly agreed with her.

I half stumbled from the shop, my brain reeling and having a conscience battle. One part of me wanted to run and throw myself at Sirius, the other that was winning wanted to punch him on the nose. I settle for eating my cookie and clinging to James so I wouldn't faint. Finally we reached Olivander's, and stepped inside. The shop hadn't changed a bit, it was still dusty and stacked from floor to ceiling with wand boxes of every shape and size. James perched on the stool, and Sirius sat crossed-legged on the floor, staring intently at me.

I turned around and jumped as Mr. Olivander himself had materialized in front of me suddenly. "Hello," he whispered. "Broken your wand, I see."

"Er, yeah." I pulled the remains from my purse, it was snapped clean in two. The old man shook his head, and vanished into the shelves of wands. He returned, bearing a small, velvety box. Mr. Olivander handed it to me, saying "Twelve inches, maple and unicorn hair. Give it a try."

Feeling rather silly, I raised my hand to wave it around. Almost immediately, the old man snatched it from my grip, replacing it with another one.

"Mahogany, sixteen inches. Dragon heartstring, try it." And I waved it, to no avail. I must have tried dozens of wands, but he was never satisfied. I glanced back at my friends, who were still watching. Sirius grinned, and gave me thumbs up. I weakly smiled back, very tired of the small and light-deprived shop. Mr. Olivander had returned from the very back of the store, which must have been his workroom. He carefully unwrapped it, as if he was holding the Holy Grail. Then he handed it to me, with a pensive look on his face. The wand felt good in my hand, and I smiled at it.

"Rosewood, fourteen inches long. Phoenix feather." Olivander stared into my pale blue eyes with his silvery ones, grinning widely. I thought of a spell, and pointed it at James. Silently, his hair turned green! The shop roared with Sirius' and mine laughter, as James frantically tried to turn it back. Even Mr. Olivander may have let out a small chuckle. I finally choked out the countercurse, and paid for my new wand.

"Where to next?" I asked, stepping into daylight. "I finished all my shopping last week."

"I need new robes, and potion ingredients." Sirius said, looking just as happy as I was to be out in daylight again. James also had to pick up his books at Flourish and Blott's. First we stopped at Madam Malkine's, where Sirius was picking through winter cloaks. I was lazily bewitching random objects to fly around the room, and James was reading out school supply list.

"Wait," he said, drawing our attention back. "This says we all need dress robes. Why?" This confused us all, and Madam Malkine gave a soft laugh, and shoved the boys towards the section filled with the weird suits. "You'll find out soon enough," she told me, and dragged me around to look at dresses.

"But I don't want one!" I cried, and she simply filled my arms up with more dresses of all colors and designs. Next I was shoved into a dressing room to try them all on, which took forever! The shop owner just seemed to think there was a dress that would suit me perfectly. Finally, we decided on a black & white satin gown, that had the white layer first with black embroidered flower designs, and a black layer underneath that reached to the floor. Even I had to admit that I looked gorgeous in it.

The rest of the day was uneventful except for Sirius knocking a barrel of newt eyes over in the Apothecary, me trying to shoplift a book in Flourish and Blott's, and James breaking some expensive artifact. I was very glad and exausted once night fell and we returned through the moving brick wall for supper. While we waited for our food, I tried to explain the finer points of switching spells to my two friends. I figured they stood a better chance of learning something from me than from another boring teacher.

"You see," I told them, but clearly realized they didn't. James was looking sort of near me, and Sirius was playing with one of his thick, black locks of hair. "I give up!" I exasperadly told them, and stalked out into the Muggle world to think. I walked down Charing Cross road, passing St. Mungo's. I smiled and winked at the manequin, and I could swear it winked back. Continuing on, I finally reachd a large and empty church, which I entered.

I always liked churches, even though I'm not very religious. I found them comforting that they were always open to anyone, anytime. I walked up the stairs to the balcony, and sat at one of the higher pews. I leaned my head back to stare up the rafters, wishing I could turn into an owl and soar through them.

I was really worried about this last year at Hogwarts. What would I do after? Before I'd rarely given it any thought, to Profesor McGonagall's dismay. She had called me her most talented student at the fifth year career counselling session, but then told me that I was indecisive and lacked direction. Now that seemed startlingly true.

Would I ever do something useful? All through my life, I've drifted. Drifted around durning the summer, trying to be anywhere but with my family. As a child I'd drifted through the slums of London, day and night, sometimes for weeks at a time. But I never found exactly what I was looking for. Then I went to Hogwarts, and met friends. I was rooted for a while in school, but when I got restless I would still roam the corridors and grounds, looking for something that I'm still not exactly sure what it is.

For the past two years, I didn't drift really at all. I stayed with Remus, and I was content. But sometimes, I would still have to aimlessly run towards something that I'm not quite sure of. Or am I running away? Now I was drifting again, not knowing where I am, but not lost either. Why couldn't I just be able to stay put? Forget the unknown that I'm searching for?

"What the hell am I looking for anyway?" I said aloud, not realizing it. I heard my voice echo, which shocked me from my thoughts. I peeked out a window, and it was pitch black. Definately scary, and I raised my hand to look at the digital Muggle wristwatch Lily had given me for Christmas. It read 12:34 PM!

"Oh shit," I muttered. James and Sirius must be worried sick by now! I leaped from the pews, and ran out into the night. I jogged along down the street, and remembered that earlier I had spotted an alley that connected this street to Charing Cross Road, but decided against using it. I turned left into it, desperate to get back to my friends, but then a pair of thick, strong arms reached from the shadows and slammed me into the wall. I felt a huge bruise form on my back, but I paid it no mind.

"Don't scream or I'll shoot," a raspy man's voice told me, holding a Muggle gun to my head, pinning me to the wall with his other arm. I could smell whiskey on his breath, and his eyes were bloodshot from who knows what. "Just gimme the money and you can leave."

I automatically reached for my wand, and my hands met an empty pocket. It was left in the pub! I mentally cursed myself, praying that I could talk myself out of this one.

"Don't got any," I shortly replied, knowing before I finished the sentance it wouldn't work. But I couldn't give him wizard cash!

"Sure you don't," he teased me. I was starting to panic, where were all the annoying Muggle tourists when you needed them! Meanwhile, the mugger locked a bullet into place with a finger. "Now, for the last time, where is it?"

I was clearly out-matched, and decided (rather stupidly) to run. I stomped on his foot, reaching up and sticking my finger in his right eye at the same time, making my attacker howl in pain.

I darted from his grip, like a cafinated squirrel, and shouted for help. I was gonna die! I only got about half a foot before he reached out and grabbed my hair, pulling me back, and smashed my skull into the wall. Stars erupted into my sight as he raised the gun again.

This time, I was more or less prepared. I dropped down, hard on the pavement, hearing my ribs crack as the criminal landed on top of me. Then I tried to roll away, but got tangeled up with the drunk and unbalenced robber.

He tried to aim the gun, but we were hopelessly struggling, so he let three shots in random directions. I was clutching his wrist, trying to keep the gun pointed away from me. Maybe all those years of Quidditch practice weren't to no use, I was much stronger than I looked. I screamed, and finally, pulled myself to my feet and started to run, but now free he could aim, and one of the bullets found its mark. Judging from the sharp pain, it was lodged somewhere in my right leg.

I toppled to the ground, which was slick with my own blood. I clutched my leg in pain, gritting my teeth, trying to fight back my nausea. I was slowly losing counciness. In the distance, I heard shouts of "Call and ambulance!" And briefly felt somebody pick me up before it all faded to a blinding darkness.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note:** Yay! An update! Finally! Anyways, I hope you like it so far, please review and feel free to message me or ramble about whatever...I'll find some witty remark in the vast empty space of my cranium to reply with...yup. Enjoy!

Walking With A Ghost

Chapter 5

My eyes fluttered open as I became aware of my beat mup body again. My mouth tasted like shit, and I had a killer urge to pee. Also, my head had a sickly itch feeling. I brought my hand up to scratch it, a bandage meeting my hand. Then, gradually, the pain hit me. My leg was screaming, and my torso was tearing my brain and nerves in two, every part of me was screaming! I felt nearly detached from my body in my misery. I still hadn't opened my eyes, since I had clinched them shut against the hurt. I slowly got a grip over myself, then opened up my eyes, and was horrified at what I saw.

White sheets, white walls, a thingy in the corner that beeped when my heart beat, outside the window I estimated I had to be on at least the tenth floor, my arm had tubes stuck into it, that had weird liquid substances going through them! Into me! I was also wearing a...what was it exactly? It was like a face mask, but it was clear, and ran to a tank of something. But I didn't taste anything, it was just...air. (FYI: Mona's just clueless, it's an oxygen mask) I pulled it off, since I didn't need it anymore. I shifted a bit, and glanced down. I was covered in scratchy white sheets, and a faded green camel blanket. It was warm, I had to admit that. I looked at my bed, and saw that I had a pee bag. Spetacular, just bloody spetacular! My hair was a mess too, and I ran my hand through the tangled strands, trying to comb it. Then it hit me. This was not what the rooms looked like in St. Mungo's. I knew where I was. The Muggle Hospital.

"AAAAAAAHHHHH!"

Immediately a nurse came rushing in, wearing blue scrubs. She had strawberry blonde hair that was pulled neatly into a ponytail, and light blue eyes that glinted like the waters of the lake back at Hogwarts. "Miss, calm down!"

"Huh?" I stopped yelling, but was panicking inside. There was no way to contact anybody from here! It's not like I could just telephone James and Sirius from the Muggle world! I cursed myself for being born pure-blood, and not having any bloody Muggle friends. I knew everybody at Diagon Alley since I can remember, but it's not like Tom has a telephone! There was no way at all for me to find them, or anybody, from here without breaking every known law in the wizarding world. Wasn't there some clause that let me tell the hospital that technically I am not even an existing member of your society, and I don't have a record of any sort recorded here, or even a social security number? Nope. As if my day, or night, or whatever could get any worse.

"Where the hell am I?" I grumbled, trying to act normal. The nurse started to prop me up on soggy pillows.

"Middlesex Hospital. You're in ICU." she told me, obviously bewildered by my incompetence.

"ICU?" I politely asked, they were probably referring me to the mental institution right now anyways.

"Intensive care unit?" the nurse told me like it was the most logical thing in the world. She raised her eyebrows behind her wispy bangs. "Do you remember what happened?"

I nodded. "Guy bashed me into a wall, I ran, then bang." I formed the figure of a gun with my fingers, and pretended to shoot it. By the looks of it, I had been shot in the leg, and the collision with the wall gave me a gash on the forehead. At least they didn't shave my hair up to stich it up, I mused silently. The nurse looked relieved that I had remembered. I was frantically calling everything up from my Muggle Studies class about hospitals, which wasn't that much information. They used different methods than us, the teacher said. They perform surgery, and give you drugs. The nurse sat on the side of my bed at knee level, holding a clipboard of papers and a pen posed to write.

"I'm Anna, your nurse. Listen," she kindly told me. "We didn't find any identification on you, just some weird coins. Who exactly are you?"

I froze. Just say the name Mona, and stay calm. "Mona Lisa Proctor." I stated through gritted teeth, since my leg was throbbing and if I opened my mouth I was sure to scream. The nurse noticed.

"Here, let me up your morphine," and she pushed a button on the mechanical thing that pumped medicine into my arm. She sat back down, and resumed her original pose. "Age? Any diseases or allergies? Is there someone we can call?"

I frowned. "Seventeen. Don't think so, and my family hates me, and James and Sirius are staying at a motel." I blurted out.

"So which motel? Do you know the telephone number?" she pestered me, and I was quickly running out of answers.

"Uh...I dunno..." I muttered. She raised her eyebrows.

"Come on. Motels have telephones. Where are they staying? You have to have some vague idea!"

"Uh..."

"Where do you live anyways?" she continued on, having filled in barely any contact slots on Mona's chart. This girl was impossiable!

"Uh...I go to boarding school in the autum, so during the summer I'm sorta homeless."

"Parents?" Anna was now really wanting to find out who this girl was. Probably a run-away, or some sort of drug dealer who can't say the real conditions of her living for safety.

"They kicked me out, I told you!" I was scared. There was no way I could reach James and Sirius, and Remus was on holiday! I wanted to cry.

"Any other friends near by?" Anna gently asked, seeing that I was fighting back tears. I shook my head, and wiped my eyes with a corner of the bedsheet.

Anna sighed, and felt a bit bad for the stranger girl. "We had to do some surgery, and give you stitches." Anna said clearly.

"What!"

"The surgical interns had a field day, you needed a knee replacement since the bullet shattered your knee." Her eyes sparkled. "It's amazing how fast you recovered! How did you do it? And you're hardly yelling from pain, the other guy we had with a knee replacement was screaming for a whole week!"

This was freaky to me now. People were watching me get sliced open like it was a cinema film Lily told me about or something! "Uh, I do sports. How long was I out anyways?"

"We tried to keep you out for most of the healing process. It's been four days."

"WHAT!" I roared, my head spinning. James and Sirius would be worried sick! They probably wrote to Remus begging what to do, and he was probably keeled over with a heart attack from sheer shock! Peter would have most likely wet himself at the news, and started to cry. I really needed a hug from one of my friends right now...I started to cry. They had no idea where I was, and in the Muggle world I didn't even exist. To them, I might even be dead. Maybe they would somehow track me down. Even though they didn't act like it, they were smart. But how were they going to find me here? I told myself again and again they would be scouring the streets of London, searching for me, and if they didn't find me, I would eventually get better and find them.

When I looked up, Anna was gone. I dried my eyes again on the blanket, and was determined to get better as fast as I could to get as far away from here as possiable. I sat up, and reached for the chart Anna left behind. It said that I had a gash on my forehead which I already knew, medical mumbo jumbo about the surgery, and that I had a mostly healed, but still broken rib. Apparently, I was also scheduled for therapy later today.

So, I reached over and ate a hospital pudding cup while I intently read the rest of the chart. I couldn't understand a word, it was like a foreign language, but next to Anna's notes on her little interview with me, she printed IDENTITY QUESTIONABLE. I heaved a heavy sigh, and threw the chart away from me on the nightstand. I was exausted, both mentally and physically, so I snuggled down into the covers, and immediately fell asleep.

(Dinner time)

As I ate my overcooked chicken carefully, I reflected on the day. In therapy, I was introduced to a muscle guy who lifted my leg up and down and we praticed flexing it, which was suprisingly exausting. When he turned his back, I stood up and tried to make a run for it, which resulted in me going about three steps before I fell over and ripped my stitches out. After that, I got a sponge bath from Anna and another nurse named Mallory. She snuck me more pudding cups, and thought I was a member of a secret government society that I was a spy for secretly international. So far, hospital life was good, who doesn't like free pudding? But I was still thourghly home sick, and wished that one of my friends would find me soon.


	6. Chapter 6

Walking With A Ghost

Chapter 6

The next morning, I awoke gently to the sunlight falling through the thin slits of the blinds on to her face. She squinted for a second, recalling where she was. Great, it wasn't all just a horrid dream...I wanted to go home NOW. By home, I meant the Leaky Cauldron, with Tom the bartender and all the shop keepers, and the locals and the regulars...and my friends...I never knew how much they meant to me until now. And now they are gone! I picked up the remote attached to my bed with a tangled plastic cord, and flipped the television on. It was supposed to be beautiful all week long, sunny and in the 80s according to the cheery newscaster. There was some Muggle stuff about some politician giving a controversial speech, and I watched the rest of the news in fascination. I even watched a talk show, a soap opera, and a movie. It was amazing how much free time I had now, it was nearly scary. All I had to do was eat, sleep, watch tv when I was awake, and go to my check-ups and physical therapy. This was the life. But I couldn't help but wonder every once in a while (about three times every ten minutes) what James and Sirius and the rest of the crew were doing...

(Back at the Leaky Cauldron)

"But she has to be somewhere!" James cried out, pacing in front of the fireplace. Sirius was slouched in an armchair, exausted from nerves but running over accounts of what locals had said when they described Mona and when she might have been passing by constantly in his mind. Where did she go? It was as if their best friend had vanished off the face of the planet! James had written to Peter, Remus, and Lily telling them what happened, and asking what they might try to do. The best friends hadn't gotten any replys yet, since everybody lived quite a distance away.

"I never should have come here, or ignored her, or she'd be fine and safe!" Sirius burst out, rubbing his tired eyes. Neither James nor Sirius had barely slept at all in the past five days, ever since they waited up until sunrise the next morning, waiting for Mona Lisa to return.

"Don't blame yourself lad," Tom said, hunched over a mug he was cleaning. "She'll turn up sooner or later, Miss Proctor can take care of herself." A woman seated at the bar looked kindly at the boys, having witnessed their distress for the past two hours.

"Why don't you go get some sleep, Tom and I will watch and tell you if something happens." And they were shooed off to their rooms upstairs. James collapsed on the bed, falling asleep immediately, while Sirius stayed awake, staring at the ceiling. He was really panicking, what if Mona had been kidnapped by a Muggle? Or been hurt, or gotten lost, or...he gulped. Heaven forbid, raped! He turned over, and curled up next to the wall. They didn't even get to say good-bye...

The next morning, both boys awakened to the sound of tapping on their window. Three owls floated outside, each clutching a letter. Sirius leaped out of bed, and opened it up, snatching the letters. The first one was from Peter: it basically said that he was sorry, but couldn't come down because his mother was sick with the Muggle flu and he didn't want to leave her alone. The one from Lily was much more helpful, it said:

_To James and Sirius,_

_I can't believe this happened! Be sure to ask people even miles away, Mona does have a tendancy to wandar. Try to think of somewhere she might like to go when she's upset, somewhere peaceful like a garden or a park or a church or something. I'm not entirely sure, you know her better than I do. Ask anybody you see, but she'll turn up eventually. I'll come down as soon as I can to help you search, just keep looking until I get there. That'd be why she isn't coming back probably, keep looking!_

_Lily_

Another letter was clasped in a ruffled looking owl, that nearly collasped from exaustion on the desk. James recognized it as one of the speed owls that were said to be able to fly three times faster than a normal owl. It was from Remus, who was still in holiday in France! It consisted of a very bitter paragraph:

_I'd come back right now, I knew something like this would happen if I left. But I can't because it's almost the full moon, and my parents don't want me travelling back abroad for obvious reasons. I want to come anyways, but I can't! I really want to kick you right now for letting her out of your sight, Sirius. Once you find her, give her a hug from me. Suggestions? Um...try looking around local hospitals. She might have been hurt in an accident. Wait, don't go until Lily gets there since she's probably coming down. No offense, but you'll probably be put in a mental hospital if you try to communicate with normal people. See you when school starts, and you'd better have Mona with you or else._

_Remus_

Sirius gulped a bit. The last time he'd been hexed by Moony was in their fourth year, and it hadn't been pretty. They'd forgotten what it was about, but Sirius still tasted vomiting slugs in his nightmares sometimes. He definately didn't want to repeat the experiance.

"Let's go, we should go ask around parks like Lily told us." James tossed Sirius his jacket, and they headed out into the Muggle world together.

(Back at the hospital...)

"Three jacks!" Mallory triumphantly slammed down three cards face down on the large stack forming on my rolling food cart. We (meaning I, Mallory, two other nurses, Jacquelin and Tina, Nathan the surgical intern, and Mikey the anestesiaologist) Together, they decided to spend all their free time in my room, since they all thought I was cool or something. I'd say more bizarre than cool, but it's their opinion. Today, we all decided to play cards together, and since everybody went broke twenty minutes earlier we all were playing B.S.

"B.S.!" Mikey laughed, flashing the fact that he currently held all four jacks. Mallory's mood drooped as she was forced to take all the cards that were growing in a pile into her hand. We kept going around and around, until Nathan's pager beeped, and a code blue was reported on the fifth floor forcing everybody but me and Mikey to dash from the room at top speed. I swear, this hospital never sleeps or stops moving! It's insane!

Mikey sighed, and I took in his appearance. He wore his hair short, but his bangs fell low over his forehead and into his eyes. He was a blonde, tall, and in my opinion very handsome. He also wore thick, rectangle glasses with large, plastic black frames. He constantly had this aura of innocence and "hug me I'm an adorable puppy" about him, that no one could ever resist. Including me, and everybody else. Which is why he was the only one who walked away from our ridiculous poker tournament without losing over $800. I didn't care, I wasn't going to be paying it back. But I did have to say, I would miss these people when I got better. Maybe I'd come back to visit or something, they'd probably have forgotten me by the end of the month.

That's what I hate about time. Honestly, time sucks. It's like sand, you try to hold it in your hands but you can't, it always slips through the cracks between your fingers anyways, and eventually you're left with nothing. Empty handed, only with the gradually fading memory of what you once had. Oh well. I guess I should just enjoy my time here, or not, since I was still longing for contact with the magical world. My friends would probably be bald by now from tearing out their hair...

"So..." Mikey interrupted my thoughts, looking a bit uncomfortable in his folding chair.

"So..." I said back, not having any idea what to tell him. Why do moments like this always happen? We just sat there in silence, staring around the room. A small knock sounded at the door, and a short, African woman was standing at the door with a large stack of papers. I knew who it was, this was Mikey's boss, Rosemary.

"Labs came back." she snapped at him, dumping the enourmous load into Mikey's arms, making him grunt under the weight, and sag a bit from trying to hold it. "Go on now, do your little analyzing thing. I'm not gonna read all that crap!" Mikey muttered under his breath, and bid me good-bye sadly. Though he was sure to leave me a couple shots of extra morphine, was it? To take on my own. They helped out a lot, especially when you want to be able to sleep.

So we parted ways, Mikey wandering off to his messy office, where he was somehow able to decipher the cryptic number language of the labs. How he does it, nobody else in the hospital really knows. It's amazing how much you learn about people in such a short period of time. I drummed my fingers on the plastic bed guards that made sure I wasn't going to fall out. Now what? At times like this, I'm never more aware of how much I don't belong here. The magazines are just totally foreign, and the television may be fascinating, but it's too confusing to try and stay up to date. I yawned, and let my tired body drift back to sleep.

About fifteen miles away, two teenage boys were crammed into a telephone booth, clutching the telephone in the middle of them along with detailed instructions on how to operate it from a Muggle born woman in the Leaky Cauldron. Sirius hadn't understood a word of it, and James really didn't either, so they were just going to try their luck with the "phone book."

"All right, first up, London Recieving." James announced, and dialed the digits into the keypad, feeling so happy about being able to work a telephone, or as Sirius called it, a felly-tone. There was two rings in the earpiece, that James was holding at mouth level, so Sirius grabbed it and turned the u-shaped black thing over. There was a click, and a voice sounded on the other end! Of a person! Sirius squealed in excitement and suprise, then was quickly hushed by James.

"London Recieving Hospital, how may I help you?" A woman's voice pleasently issued from the phone's speaker, and the two friends frantically searched the written on napkin the nice witch had given them in the pub, about what to say to the woman.

"Uh...we'd like to see if somebody is staying at the hospital." James spoke evenly, pronauncing each word clearly.

"May I ask who is calling, please?" the woman spoke again in that annoying happy high pitched voice.

"Oh, I'm James Potter!" James spoke up happily.

"And I'm Sirius!" Sirius yelled into the phone, causing the woman on the other end to hold it at arm's length away from her.

"Shut up!" James hissed, pulled on the tangled cord, and stood in the corner, facing out so Sirius couldn't interrupt.

"Gimme the felly-tone!" Sirius whined, and grabbed at the phone. James tugged it away quickly.

"No!"

"Now!" Sirius demanded, throwing himself half over his buddy's shoulder, both of them slamming into the walls of the tiny booth, squished on the sides of the glass windows. The woman's voice was babbling about something over the phone, which was on the ground, while the boys were trying to rearrange themselves again to no hope, slamming into glass and everything else. Passerby people stared at them, and muttered quietly. Finally James picked up the phone again, standing over Sirius who was staggering to his feet.

"Er, yeah. Her name's Mona Lisa Proctor, she's about seventeen, kinda average height? Wait, what? I don't know her birthday!"

"September 27!" Sirius hissed into his ear, sticking his face up to the phone to hear better.

"Yes, that's right. Oh. Oh... Yep. Thank you for your trouble." James hung up the phone. "She isn't there."

"Then where is she!" Sirius burst out, wringing his hands in anxiety.

"Cool it! There's hundreds of hospitals in London, this was only the first one!" James said, and dialed another one. They both groaned, and started the whole process over again. Later that night, only having made fifty-seven phone calls, they both trooped back exausted to the Leaky Cauldron. Sirius was so sick of hearing caffinated cheerleader voices from little speaker things he wanted to smash every felly-tone in the country with a hammer. That was his last thought before falling asleep, dreaming of nothing memorable to think of in the morning, or comprehend in unconciousness.

It had been a week and a day now since I went 'missing.' I don't know what's happened in the wizarding world, or what's happened to my friends. Do you know how painful that is? Having to be alone, yet they're so close, but you just can't reach them! I kept thinking, did it even matter if I wasn't a part of this world anymore? Who would even care if I died? Sure, my friends would be sad and all, but in seven years they will have forgotten my last name. Just a passing memory, that's what I am. How many people before me had laid on this bed, knowing nobody here would remeber them for more than a week? Why didn't they see the world like I do, how horrific time is that it constantly kicks you again and again until you finally fall. That's me, the passing dream on the horizon, forgotten in the morning. I couldn't help but have dark thoughts constantly flash through my mind, it seemed like I was barely able to control my thoughts when I was alone anymore. There was somebody else at the helm of the boat, while I was locked behind a glass window, watching it all. The feeling always quickly passed, but why is it there in the first place? What am I, an insomniac?

Please don't answer that question.


	7. Chapter 7

Walking With A Ghost

Chapter 7

It had been nine days now since I had been stranded in Middlesex Hospital. Or was it ten? Everything had a tendancy to fade together, especially time. I felt lost, and bored. I had, ahem, sped up the healing process if you know what I mean with some of my own remedies, I've been getting impatient to get back out into the world. People still questioned me where I came from, but I was sure to never give them a straight answer, or just give them conflicting information so they would stomp away in frusturation. To them I was probably just another drug dealer who got shot on the street, I didn't matter at all. Mikey kept trying to get my contact information, so he could find out where he could visit, but I couldn't give away the wizarding world's secrets! Especially not to a Muggle. I mean, he's a sweet guy and all, but..._But exactly?_ My conscience keeps nagging me, until I mentally beat it with a sausage.

The doctors got a little suspicious over my extremely fast recovery, so I'm being extra careful to only heal myself magically a little at a time. It's a lot harder when you don't have a wand, in fact it's excurating to try and attempt it. But in my case, I would never get out of here by September first if I didn't try. It was either the twenty-third or the twenty-fourth of August, I could barely tell anymore. All I can think about now is that I'd better get better fast, or my friends had better find me, and get me out of here!

A small knock tapped twice on my door, and I looked up over my tabloid that Mallory bought me yesterday. "Come in!"

Mikey's ruffled blonde head poked through the door, his big blue eyes staring innocently at me. "Good morning!" He smiled softly. "I brought french fries!" He exclaimed as he held up a large, greasy bag full of the little yellow sticks. Ah, they were so good ! Mikey carefully sat on the end of my bed, and I sat up and crossed my legs on top of the blanket to sit across from him to share the fast food. We munched in silence together, watching the television. Silences were never ackward between us.

"So." He spoke to me.

"So." I repeated to him, shifting my pale eyes toward him. When I finally looked in a mirror, I was amazed on how different I looked all the sudden. At first, my face looked nearly skeletal from lack of food and energy-drain, and my eyes were sunken and dark. Gradually, I started to look less starved, and more like a normal person. Today I looked just as I had when I departed the magical world, but for some reason my already pale eyes were nearly silver in color. Don't ask why, they just were. It's probably the light.

"You're getting released soon, I heard your doctors talking." he said. I felt hope lift in my heart, then I thought of abandoning my new friends, and it sunk to a bittersweet joy. Why did fate tell me I could never see them again? "Will we see each other again?"

I froze, at a loss for words. Mikey was staring at his feet. "I'd like to see you again, I mean, not like a patient, but outside the hospital. Maybe we could go see a movie together or something, or hang out? Maybe...like a date or something?" His face was the color of a tomato by now, and I felt seriously bad. What the hell was I supposed to say? I wanted to say yes, and desperately hug him, but I couldn't! I'd go back to Diagon Alley, and disappear forever. Just another pretty face in the crowd...

"I...I..." I fumbled with my conscience. My throat seemed to lock. "I want to. But I can't." Mikey frowned and looked at me.

"Either yes or no, Mona." he said, his pale eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Yes! I mean..no...? Uh...it's a really long story." Suddenly, for some reason, Sirius' face popped in my head. And Remus' too. "I can't tell you here. I'd get in trouble if I told you at all. When am I getting released?" I asked, trying to come up with something.

"Uh...on the twenty-seventh, in three days." He blandly answered.

I drew a deep breath. "I can't date you. I'm sorry. But I really want to be your friend still! I have a feeling that you felt obligated to ask me, otherwise I'd just disapper. Which you were right about." I said, shooting in the dark with my responses. Mikey nodded to me.

"I guess that's how I felt. But why can't you just tell me where you go to school, even?" he told me, the red shades turning back into his normal skin tone.

I felt lost. I had to make up my mind! I didn't want to lose my friends, and I didn't have to tell anybody else about my being a witch. Just Mikey, and he was trustworthy, right? "I will tell you. But not here. I could be overheard, and you have no idea how much trouble that would get me in. Meet me in the Starbucks off of Charing Cross Road at one, on the twenty-eighth. That's the day after I get released, right?"

He nodded. "But why?"

"I'll tell you soon. Just come, okay? I'll be there." He nodded, and we went back to eating french fries. Soon, his pager beeped, and Mikey scurried from my hospital ward. What have I done? I told myself again and again. How could I just do that, and tell him about the whole world? But something was pushing me to do it, and telling me that there was a purpose to it. I wasn't going to end up dating him, I knew I couldn't do that. But who knows? Anything can happen really. I just had to be sure that nobody else knew. Who knows what the Ministry would do, damn them and their stupid laws! Of course you couldn't tell the whole Muggle population, but I met Muggles who know of the wizarding world before. Like parents, and a few spouses. Lily's parents knew, and were proud of their daughter beyond belief! I could just pray that Mikey would take this well, and believe me. And if he didn't believe me, then I could make him. I am a witch, you know.

"Wake up!" A woman's voice called from behind the door of Sirius and James' room. The both groggily sat up, hearing more pounding at the door.

"All right, all right. We're coming!" James slid out of the bed, and stiffly walked over to the door, unlocking it and opening it up. Outside stook...Lily!

"LILY!" he exclaimed, throwing his arms around the witch's neck. "I LOVE YOU!"

Lily grunted, and replied tiredly "That's nice, James. Now let go, or you might have to join Mona in the hospital."

Sirius was sitting up, and smiling at his friend. Lily was seventeen too, and a very powerful witch. She had red hair, and bright green eyes. Ah, Lily Evans, came all this way just to help them!

"Don't think I'm doing this for you, I just want to find Mona." Lily told James, shaking her index finger at him. "Now, what have you done?"

Sirius answered, "We called a bunch of hospitals in the area, and narrowed down the list. We asked people if they saw her around here, and we only got a couple people who were in this park a few nights ago."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "That's it?" She sighed. "Let's get out a map of London." James grabbed one from inside the small desk near the window of the motel room, and spread it out on the floor.

"Okay, so we're here." Lily stated, circling their area with a marker. "Where's that park?" Sirius pointed to a small green area on the map, about a mile away. Lily drew a line across the map to the park, and looked up again. "Hm. Where would be somewhere she'd like to go?" Lily mused, looking around the map, until her eyes fell on a small church. The caption off to the side said it was an old church, and never closed it's doors. "That's it!" she told to no one in particular, and circled the church. It was about two blocks away from the park. "Now...since she left around midnight, it probably took her an hour or two to get there, and that's about the time she went missing. So, she had to be taken to the hospital closest to the church..."

They all looked at the map again, searching for a hospital. "There it is!" James cried, pointing to a small blue square labeled 'Middlesex Hospital.' "We found her!"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Technically Lily did. She didn't even need to call anybody!" He sighed, grateful that they had Lily for a friend.

"Well, you two had better put on some clothes, then we can get going. We haven't any time to lose!" She left the room to go wait in the hallway while the boys dressed. They came out together a bit later, both wearing leather jackets they bought so Peter wouldn't worry about them riding around on Sirius' motorcycle. Lily was wearing big sunglasses, a red knit sweater, and shorts.

"Let's go!" James cheered, and led their small group out the door, Lily holding the map. "This way!"

"No, it's this way." Lily corrected him, and turned to the left instead. Sirius laughed, and followed behind. Today was certainly going to be entertaining!

About an hour and a few pit stops later, the group had arrived at Middlesex Hospital. It was enormous! The building was brown brick, with so many floors! Wings stuck out in every which way, they were awed at the size. How would they find Mona here? Lily started walking to the doors, and stopped before they entered.

"Okay, listen up!" She snarled at them. "You aren't going to say anything, touch anything, _breathe_ on anything, and if you do, so help me God, I'll casterate you both!" Lily took a deep breath, and managed to smile. "Glad we got that settle. Just let me do the talking, okay?" The boys nodded in fear, and followed their friend at a safe distance. The red head walked up to the desk, and rang the little bell. A secretary walked out of a back room, and smiled at them.

"How may I help you?" she kindly said, her name tag read Mandy.

"We're looking for a patient here, we want to visit, but I forgot what number the room is." Lily said, smiling at her. James opened his mouth to say something, and Lily slammed her foot into his toes. Sirius snickered, and the secretary just blankly stared.

"What's your friend's name?"

"Mona Lisa Proctor. I don't think there's anybody else named that..." Lily trailed off, watching the woman scan a long list of names.

"Hm...Ah! Here we are, room 876. Have a nice day!" she offered a big smile, and waved them off. Lily grabbed the boy's arms, and dragged them to the elevator. They both stared openmouthed at it, and when Lily pressed the button and the door opened, Sirius leaped back and gave a little scream! The people rushed out, muttering behind their hands. James was simply shocked, and was afraid to step on it.

"Come on!" Lily hissed, and pushed him on, pushing the close button before anybody else could get on, and punched the eigth floor button. The elevator shot up, and James and Sirius both collasped on the floor, clutching on to the railings. The man in a wheelchair next to them had his mouth wide open, and Lily looked at him with her "God, save me now!" look. A little ding sounded, and the doors slid open again.

"Move it!" Lily barked at the wizards, and they ran from the elevator. "Now, help me look for her room." They walked around the hallways, looking everywhere but not finding the stupid number! Nurses everywhere gave them disgruntled looks, and Lily looks of pity when James accidentally knocked an entire cart of IVs over. Next, when Lily took her eyes off Sirius for one second to drag James away from the blood test tubes, their handsome friend crashed straight into a poor man carrying a two foot tall stack of papers.

"Oof!" And the papers went everywhere! Both guys were sprawled on the floor, and they stared at each other in shock for a moment. The new Muggle had blonde hair and huge, innocent blue eyes with a tall, slender build.

"I'm so sorry!" Lily gasped, and James scattered gathering up all the papers. "Sirius, you idiot!" and she smacked him upside the head.

"Ow!" James laughed, and helped the Muggle gather up his papers. Lily stood up again, holding most of the stack.

"I'm so sorry sir, but if you could please tell us where room 876 is?" she kindly asked, and the doctor's eyes lit up.

"You're looking for Mona! You're here! Her friends!" And he threw his arms around Lily, dropping all the papers again (Mikey has quite a habit of doing that, doesn't he?) "I know her! I mean, I met her, or am meeting her, uh...I'm confused...wait, maybe I'm not..." Mikey looked utterly puzzled, and scratched his head, messing up his blonde hair again. It kept falling into his thick glasses, and he smiled at Lily. "This way!"

He led them down the hallway, leaving the papers behind. It's not like anybody else could read them, he'd just print more later. Then he spotted Mallory down the hall. "Mikey! Did you finish those labs yet? Wait, where are they? Did you drop them again?" Mallory chided him.

"Yeah, I did, twice, but these are Mona's friends!" he excidedly told her, and Mallory squealed in delight, running down the corridor yelling "They're here!"

She burst through a white door, and into room 876. "Mona, they're here!"

"Who, the nice men in the white coats? Thank the Lord, it's about time they came back to get you!" I dryly replied, taking a swig of orange juice. Sirius tenatively stepped through the door, and Lily shoved him aside, wrapping her arms around me in a huge hug.

"You're okay! We were so worried!" She cried, squeezing me even harder. James peeled Lily off me, and gripped me in a death grip for five minutes. My lips even turned blue, and Mallory's ribs hurt just from thinking about that hug. Finally, Sirius gently hugged her, and I gratefully hugged back in relief of not having to experience another "James" hug. "I missed you." he softly told her, and I nodded in agreement. My friends were here!

Finally everybody sat in chairs out in the waiting room so there was enough space. I was in a tracksuit instead of the hospital gown, since she could walk even though she still had a heavy limp from her knee. James started talking.

"We've been searching for days, you know that? You made us sick with worry! Don't ever leave us again!" he spat.

"Yes, mother." I muttered, and rolled my eyes.

Sirius started talking again. "Remus is pissed, you know that? And he's scary when he's angry. Then he's mad at me for letting you out of my sight, that guy is freaky. Oh yeah, he also sends his love!" I nearly spat her coffee out at this, and Lily snickered.

"You make a lovely couple." she teased.

"Shut up!" I growled. "Anyways, when can I get out of here? I'm supposed to be released, but I can probably get Mallory to sneak me out. I had to have a knee replacement! I have a metal knee! And look at this scar!" I rolled up my sweat pants to reveal a giant silver scar that went across the entire curve of my left knee. There was no way that even St. Mungo's could give me my normal knee back. Sirius gasped, and gently touched it with his fingertips. Then he gave me another hug, which I dutifully accepted. My friends were very huggy today! It was a nice change, but they had better get back to normal soon, or I might be here for another week with broken ribs.

"So," Lily started. "We're taking you to St. Mungo's right now to patch you up, m'kay?" She said like it was the most logical thing in the world!

"I can't just pick up and go! Are you crazy!" I blurted out, and Lily sighed, and looked over her shoulder to make sure nobody else was in the room but me, her, Sirius and James.

"Listen, Mona. I know you've gotten attached to people here, and that just causes you even more pain because you have such a hard time with changes. You don't even exist in this world, you belong back in the wizarding community. Your whole family doesn't exist here, they've been a reigning pure-blood ancestry for as long as anybody can remember, which means you have nobody here. No birth records, nothing. You can't stay, no matter how you try." Lily told me, and I felt a hallowness since I have known her words are true since the moment I opened my eyes up in my hospital room.

"I know." I softly replied. "I'll go get my things." And I left the waiting room. I didn't really have any belongings, I had thrown out my old clothes because they were impossiably dirty and bloody. My money was somewhere else, I guess I just wanted to say good-bye. I opened the door up, half expecting somebody to be there, sitting on the bed with a bagel playing poker. Nothing. I saw the thin navy hoodie that I took from the hospital, and I pulled it on over my head, ruffling up my dark brown hair. My bandage was gone now, I was just letting the scar air. It was still puffy and pink, with a couple stitches in it. The same went for my leg, only my other appendage hurt about five times worse and I constantly had to streach it and limp around like an old man. I sat in a chair for a minute, tying my sneakers. I leaned back when I was done, and watched the main entrance from my window. Had it only been barely more than a week when I woke up to find Anna telling me about the frenzy the interns had over me for my surgery? Only a couple days earlier when I played poker with all the nurses, and ate French fries with Mikey? How did time get away from me this time? Oh well, I'd see him again. At least, I hope I will. Of course I'm breaking just about every law created from the day the magical world decided to vanish, but rules are meant to be broken as James tells me. My thoughts flashed back to our first year, when I barely knew anybody and was being forced to rejoin society and stop my escapades into that other world I went to in my mind while I wandered? I sighed softly. Time passes oddly, doesn't it?

My door creaked open, Mikey poked his face in. "Hey, what are you doing in here?" he asked me.

I sighed. "Saying good-bye." He raised his thin eyebrows.

"You're here for another three days." Mikey informed me, and crossed his arms. "I brought you your evening pills, anyways."

I nodded, and swallowed them without water. "Thanks." There was a pause, and Mikey ran a hand through his spikey blonde hair.

"I guess I'll be seeing you at the coffeehouse in three days, then!" he cheerfully informed me, then gave me a quick kiss on the cheek! I jumped a few inches, and he left my room, grinning like a maniac. I sighed, and the sun glimmered over the rooftops of the city. It was a hazy evening, the blood red sun seemed to quiver at the horizon. I slowly got up, turned around, and left the room without looking back. My friends were waiting down in the lobby, James and Sirius standing on either side of Lily like bodyguards in their black leather jackets and sunglasses. I quickly tugged my hood up, and led the way out through the hospital doors, down the bustling streets back to the magical world, never to be seen again by many of those I befriended, just a passing memory, like the quivering sun. I was shaking slightly, but my jarring walk across the cobblestone streets hid it. Whenever I felt as if I would cry, I just sped up, my friends never commented on the pace I set.

We reached the old, rotting wood doorway between the bookshop and the other store, with "The Leaky Cauldron" on it's shuddering sign. I stared at it for a few seconds, then glanced back on the Muggle world. A few Muggles passed us, an elderly couple out for an evening walk, a mother and her small child who was chasing pidgeons, and a group of teenage boys and girls, laughing at something a Italian boy had just said. They could have been us, walking so happily and carefree. But they were just oblivious to our world, right under their noses. As they passed by, a few girls looked at Sirius with flirtatious smiles, and the Italian boy winked at me. Then they were gone, never to be seen again by us, and the same for them.

"Come on!" Lily motioned to me from the doorway, the boys were already inside. I turned away from the Muggle world, and strode into the Leaky Cauldron. I more limped now, but no matter. People cheered upon my return, and I accepted a free dinner and drink from Tom. Everybody crowed around me, trying to squeeze my story from them, I ended up streaching the story a bit, and never quite telling the same one, and just confusing everybody even more. A lot of my stories are like that, it seems. But they were so glad to see me! Eventually I looked at my watch, it was nearing midnight.

"I've gotta go, I'm tired! I mean it, Jean. I'll hear all about the alley gossip in the morning." I kept making excuses all the way to the stairs, and finally descended up to my bedroom and crashed onto my bed. It felt so soft...and the pillows smelled right, the rattling window and broken radiator were home to me. The floor smelled musty, and had a coating of soot on the walls and the smart-alek mirror, but this was what I had. I curled up, not bothering to change or shower, and fell immediately asleep.


	8. Chapter 8

Walking With A Ghost

Chapter 8

I drifted awake this morning, and I felt pain. Urg, my leg was killing me! I had to get to St. Mungo's soon to get my knee back...I hauled myself out of bed and managed to limp into the shower, and do most of my morning routine, minus the whole attempting to co-ordinate my outfits, and keep up with trends thing. Pop culture was never my strong point, but luckily jeans and a t-shirt never went out of style. I collapsed on my bed in exaustion, and just laid there for about fifteen minutes until a knock banged on my door.

"It's open!" I hollered, and the door swung open to reveal...none other than Sirius Black! He still looked pretty tired, but was happy looking too.

"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty!" he chirped, stupid morning people...

"Shut up, go bug Lily." I murmered, and rolled over.

"Well, excuse me for being cheery! I just came to give you your wand, which I guarded with my life the whole time you were gone." I sat up, and took back my new rosewood wand, smiling. "And I didn't attempt to cast any spells, since your old wand would backfire antler-growing hexes whenever somebody else tried to use it."

I grinned in the memory of the third year day when Sirius grabbed my wand and tried out his Transfiguration homework with it. It certainly was a fun trip to the hospital wing, not being able to get through doorways and breaking valuables every which way...Filch had a field day since we left such a trail of destroyed property! "That was pretty cool, I only wish Snivellus could have grabbed it instead." we snickered, and I struggled to my feet.

"Are we going to St. Mungo's now? My leg is killing me." I complained, leaning on the wall, and I carefully hopped towards the door.

"Yeah, Lily said she wanted to heal you herself, but then said she didn't want to risk messing up. She wants to be a healer, you know." he remarked.

"Spetacular." I grunted, as I thumped slowly down the stairs, putting as little weight as possiable on my leg. Sirius was just walking behind me, not even noticing barely.

"Oh, this is pathetic to watch!" he finally said, drawing my attention back. He grabbed me around the waist, and threw my thin body over his shoulder, and carried me down the rest of the stairs despite my thumping on his strong back. Like I could have done any real damage even if I wanted to, I know some good jinxes, that's all. He finally set me down on a bench across from James and Lily.

"Morning." he greeted me, and Lily nodded, looking up for a moment from the _Daily Prophet._ The headline was about another Death Eater attack, this time a family in a suburb had been killed, I recognized the last name. It was the older sister of a Ravenclaw girl I knew, and her husband and children. Apparantely she had been an Auror, dedicated to tracking them down, and gotten in too deep. My skin crawled when I read the ages of the dead children, eight and five. I shuddered, and forced my attention back to my scrambled eggs. We all ate in silence, trying to ignore the growing threat of Lord Voldemort. I hated him, and everything he stood for, including my family. They were Dark for as long as time existed, just like Sirius' family. Today the Proctors were a dying breed, from too much in-breeding and running out of good pure-blood men and women to marry and carry on the heritage. I am an only child, with just about five first cousins. I sighed at the thought of my parents, and all my relatives. They all went to Hogwarts, or had graduated already. I don't stay in touch. I hardly know their names. From the look on Sirius's face, he was thinking the same thoughts as I was.

Unlike most, I call the Dark Lord by his proper name, I'm not afraid of it. If he ever come for me, I'll take as many of his followers, and if possiable, him too, down with me. I know what I believe in, though sometimes that might coincide a bit, that doesn't change a thing. Thinking about how he wanted to kill good people like Mikey and Mallory made me sick with fury. Finally, Lily rolled up the paper, and threw it to a hopeful looking hag-like woman.

"Let's go." Lily quietly said, and we all shuffled from the tavern into the Muggle road, down Charring Cross, to the department store. I leaned a bit on Sirius, and tried to reduce my limping so we wouldn't draw stares. Finally we reached the outdated window and looked up at the ugly manequien.

"James Potter, delivering a patient." James muttered under his breath to the blank faced woman, and jerking his head at me. I thought I saw the manequien's eyes move a bit, then it's finger jerked us foward. Sirius and I knew the routine, having been raised as this, and so did James. Lily was looking enthralled, and Sirius grabbed her elbow, and guided her through the glass. Inside was a white lineolium floor, crowded with people despite the hour. There was a man pouring steam from his ears, a little girl with fish fins and gills, another man who was covered in fur and constantly itching yelling "FLEAS! Get them off meeee!" More people with various maladies crowded the waiting room, and we patientely waited our turn in line. I sagged onto Lily's arm, she was looking around in wonder at the room. So many wizards! I smiled a bit. If she thought this was a lot of magical folk, she has yet to see the Quidditch World Cup!

"Yes?" A harassed brunette secretary said from the front desk. "Fourth floor, Spell damage," she automatically told the man covered in fur. He nodded gratefully, and frantically ran from the room.

"Uh, she was shot by a Muggle, but got Muggle treatment from a hospital. Can you reverse it, or something?" Sirius said, pointing at me. The woman furrowed her brow, and called somebody through a telephone-like object. "Yeah, try Artifact Accidents on the ground floor, Healer Denwick should be able to sort you out." she quickly told us. "Next!"

We hurried from the room, since a woman with highly contagious dragon pox was next. We all panicked over the fact that Sirius and I hadn't gotten our shots this year for the latest outbreak, and resolved to get the vaccine over the Christmas holiday. We trailed down the hallway, following clear signs and a trail of injured people until we reached a clinic-like room.

"All right, who's next?" A Caucasian man called over the heads of a large waiting room, right as a loud, ear splitting scream sounded from the back room, followed by a loud cracking noise. Everybody flinched, and the doctor paled slightly. "No worries, he just splinched himself."

Everybody flinched at the word, except Lily. "Splinched?" she asked.

"Tried to Apparate, but left half himself behind. Stuck one half in one place, one in another, can't move either way. He's a lucky one, being right in a hospital. Took a whole Accidential Magic Squad to sort me out on my first Apparation test." I answered, feeling my stomach churn at the incident's memory. I was the only one to have passed the examination so far, and I think Remus was taking it this fall.

"You, in the back!" he called, pointing at us eventually, after a ten minute wait. "Come on!" I limped foward, staggaring foward.

"Hello." I grunted, gratefully taking his arm, dragging my now immobile leg behind me. He helped me into a smaller room, and I sat on the examination table.

"So, what happened here? Broomstick fall? Cauldron explosion? Wand backfire?" he asked me, motioning for me to tilt my head so he could look down my thoat and shine a light in my ears and eyes.

"Nah, it's a really strange and stupid story." I began, then recounting the incidents of my attack, and the Muggle treatment. "So they called it a knee replacement, I think they just gave me a new knee!" I exclaimed, while he did a few checks on where I had hit my head.

"You're okay, but they did replace the knee-cap. Since you stopped taking their drugs, it's gotten worse, hasn't it?" he asked me, sitting on a swivel chair. I nodded, and blushed a bit. "The good news is, I can give you a potion to get rid of the pain for good, basically. It'll burn out all the infection, and heal it all up. The bad news is, you're stuck with your knee." My heart sunk, and I groaned. "It's okay though, you'll probably just develop some odd thing, like limping when it rains or something." He wrote out something on a paper, and handed it to me. "Be sure to take this before you go to sleep, because it'll probably knock you out. Best wishes!" the healer called, and I limped from the room to the pharmacy.

The witch there filled my prescription, and I headed back out to my friends. They were patiently waiting, Lily was reading a magazine while James and Sirius were racing pens with their wands. "I'm ready!" I cheered, and held up my baggie.

"That's wonderful!" Lily exclaimed after my telling her what the healer said. "Well, we have a whole day to kill. What do you want to do?"

"I'm hungry." James and Sirius said at the same time.

"You're always hungry." I remarked back, reading the instructions on my potion bottle. I wasn't watching where I was going, I was just following my friends.

"Let's go up to the tea shop, we can get something to eat and look around the gift shop or something." Lily said, and headed towards a stairwell. Then she glanced back at me when we reached the steps. "Oops, I forgot. What should we do?" the red head asked, and Sirius grabbed me and picked me up bridal style, then ascended the stairs.

"Problem solved!" he chirped, and we kept walking all the way to the top floor. The tea shop was carpeted instead of linolium, and had small round tables scattered throughout it. There was a cafeteria line, and hardly anybody was there. There were two witches sitting in a corner with coffee mugs and muffins, and a large wizard with a beard sat with a sandwich near the front. We all grabbed and paid for our food, then sat near a window. I had bought a soup of some kind, and a chocolate chip cookie. Sirius made puppy dog eyes, so I rolled my eyes and split it with him.

"So, the Harpies are totally going to win this year!" I started talking, and James shook his head. Lily rolled her eyes at another Quidditch discussion. "Their line up is awesome, they got Krista on Captain! They're gonna kick ass!"

"No way," James argued. "Falcons are waaay better!"

"Okay, maybe their beaters are violent, but our Seeker is brilliant!" I argued passionately.

Sirius cut in. "Chudley Cannons are going to win this year, I can feel it!"

"Urg, no!" James and I said. "They lost for what, two centuries running?" James reminded him.

"It hasn't been that long!" Sirius defended, and I rolled my eyes.

"Just keep telling yourself that. This is the Harpies' year." I decidedly spoke. The rest of our lunch went about the same, with Lily asking a question about something periodically. She just didn't _get_ Quidditch! It's not just a game, it's a way of life. We eventually finished and exausted all our subjects of talk (Quidditch, Quidditch, and guess what? More Quidditch.) and left the cafe. I felt much more recharged after my breakfast, and we headed back into town. The rest of the day we walked through London, and Diagon Alley, saying hello to people we knew, talking and laughing joyfully. That's our job, us Marauders. To make everybody remember that they have to laugh about life, no matter how serious it gets. We didn't cause that much trouble, or pull any pranks, just walked around and told rude jokes about who's doing what with who, and who's doing who with what, and all that good stuff.

Eventually we headed back to the Leaky Cauldron, I was still sobered from the death of the Ravenclaw, Rachel Buxton's sister and family. I occasionally threw in a comment or joke, but stayed silent most of the time. My friends all noticed at one point or another, but I was just...well, me. Sarcastic, narcissic, intelligently insulting Mona Lisa. And we wouldn't have it any other way! At the day's end, I still wasn't very tired, so I stayed up and read for a while. Then I finally remembered to take my potion, and fell asleep.

The next day passed much like the last, just laying around, buying last minute school supplies, and hanging out. James tried to kiss Lily for the thousandth time, and she slapped him before going home with her mother, Peter came by to go shopping, which I accompianied him on. We rarely talk, so it was a nice change. Together, we carefully walked through the Apothecary, picking out potion ingredients, and talking about our summers. Peter had just stayed with his parents, and hung around his villiage. He got a Muggle job too, at a local shop, and made a bit of money. All in all, we had another nice summer day, and my anxiety started peaking around eleven o'clock at night about the next day, when I was meeting Mikey at the coffeehouse down the street. Of course, I'd have to sneak away from my friends, and actually decide if I should tell Mikey about my magical background, persay. I finally made up my mind to go, and decided to arrive earlier, and convince Sirius and James that I was going 'girl' shopping, which I planned on doing beforehad. Then I was able to fall asleep, for a couple hours anyways.

The next morning, I got up and pulled on faded old blue jeans, a black tank top that had a glitter design across the chest, and a thin gray zipper sweater. I quickly informed a half asleep James that I was leaving for London to go shopping, and that I'd be only down the road, before heading out. I decided to grab breakfast at the coffeehouse when I got there, and headed to the store first. Of course, this time I had my wand with me all the time in an inside pocket of my jacket. I decided to go in a designer store, since I was using my families' money, and ended up spending about two-thousand Muggle dollars, or pounds, or whatever they called them in all on designer clothes. I had a new pair of sneakers (Converses, of course), a long black skirt, four new tops, a pair of high-heels, and a manicure and pedicure. It was a nice day alone so far, away from all the troubles of the wizarding world. Around twelve fourty-five I decided to head down to the coffeehouse.

I pushed open the door into the dimly lit room, the floors were polished cherry, and elaborate painting adorned the walls. Small tables and spindly chairs were scattered in winding patterns, and cushy armchairs scattered by the windows. Bean bags were gathered in corners, and I picked out a table positioned so I could easily see the door. I bought a Earl Grey tea, and a blueberry muffin, and pulled out _Witch Weekly, _rolled so nobody could see the cover of course! About a half hour later, the door tinkled open to reveal a tall, slender blonde Mikey, still wearing his thick, rectangle glasses. He was wearing a leather coat, and baggy jeans. His blonde hair was messed up from the wind, and blown across the left side of his face. Mikey glanced around for a moment, before spotting me. I quickly swallowed my muffin, and waved him over. He plowed through the maze of chairs, announcing:

"Where were you!" he exclaimed. "You vanished, in plain sight! You just LEFT! HOW!" he was nearly hypervenolating now, and pulled an inhaler from his coat pocket and took three big puffs from it. I sighed, and started to explain.

"I'll get to all that. You sure you want to know?" I finally asked him.

"Now that you said that, I sure do!" Mikey shot back, and sat down across from me. I leaned in closer so I could speak lower so the other people wouldn't overhear. Mikey leaned in too, resting his head on his hand. "Well?"

I took a final deep breath. "What if I told you that magic does exist. That real witches and wizards live right under your noses, going by their own laws and government, in their own underground community. That almost all the things you learned about magic were completely wrong?" I paused slightly, and Mikey didn't move an inch. "I'm a witch, Mikey..." And I kept going. About everything, the Ministry, my family, my friends, and my school. About other countries and their magical folk, and all the magical creatures. I stopped finally, and he stayed still.

"Wow." His blue eyes bored right into mine, searching for lies. I could tell that he believed me. "There's more, isn't there?" he asked, knowing.

I leaned in even closer, speaking in an undertone. "I told you about blood tensions, and how some, not all, pure blood families think that Muggles shouldn't be around? And about my family?" He nodded. I was trying to think of how to explain this simply. I started again.

"It's about them...they have a leader. A wizard who went as bad as you can go. Everybody else is afraid to even speak his name, and that of his followers. They're called Death Eaters, my family is some of them, a good deal. They've been dying out from too much in-breeding, and limited 'good' choices in husbands though. There's even more people like us. His name is Lord Voldemort."

"A while back, he started looking for followers, and he found them. A lot. Some were just afraid of him, others wanted a bit of his power too, since he kept getting it. At first, there were just a couple attacks and riots, then it's been getting worse. The Dark Lord kills anyone in his way, people from the Ministry, and their families. Muggle-borns, and just plain Muggles too. Your police men have probably had their share of odd murders these days, eh? That was him, or most likely the Death Eaters. You'd have to be pretty high up to have Voldemort himself come do you in. These are dark days, Mikey, for us. We don't know who to trust, we don't dare get too friendly with strange wizards or witches...horrid things happen. Today, in our paper, I read that a friend of mine's sister was killed, along with her husband and two children. He's taking over, bit by bit. Of course, people are standing up to him, but he killed 'em. Or, even worse, joined him. Usually by force, there are spells that can make others do your will. Spells to torture, spells to kill. The giants and dementors have joined him, and others too."

My mouth was dry. "It's been getting steadily worse over the years. Good, innocent people are being killed. It makes me sick. These are dark days, Mikey, dark days..." I trailed off, thinking of my friends, and how we would be thrust out into the war like this. It wasn't fair, having to grow up like this! Living in fear to go out after dark, or be home alone. I lived free of fear mostly, because of who my parents are, but then I think, won't Voldemort know they don't care about me? Mikey had stayed silent through it all, this was so much! A whole another world, a world in crisis.

"Why don't you tell more? If more people knew, we would help!" he begged Mona Lisa. She let out a harsh laugh.

"Who would believe me?" she said. "Do you even believe me?"

Mikey stayed silent again. "I think I do."

"I can prove it to you." I told him, eyes sparkling. "Are you done eating?"

Mikey nodded slowly, and followed me out the door. I led him out to the back of the building, and I sat my muffin carefully on the sidewalk, sitting beside it. "Now, promise you won't freak out at what you're about to see."

"I promise." Mikey swore, and Mona pulled her wand from the inside of her jacket. His eyes widened, and mouthed "Woah" I smiled, and focused on the muffin. This had better be good, let's see how Level 7 Transfiguration spells go... "Amonbiouet!" I said, and turned my muffin into a rabbit. It hopped around, and I picked up the adorable chocolate bunny. Mikey's mouth fell open, and he gawked openly, mouthing nothing like a fish.

"But...But...But..." he stuttered, and pointed from me, to my wand to the rabbit. I turned it back into the muffin, and continued eating it.

"Cool, eh?" I remarked, and made a sweeping motion with my wand over it. "_Wingardium Leviosa!"_ And the muffin floated into the air before Mikey's eyes. That was when he freaked out. Went into hysterics, I mean. I calmed him down eventually, and walked him back to his tiny house downtown. I noted the address, so I could owl him in the morning to make sure he thought this isn't a dream. I'll probably drop by in the evening...make sure he's taking it well...

Mikey decided to lay down in his room and watch some tv, so I left him alone, with a kiss on the forehead, I Disapparated with a loud crack before his eyes, just to rub it in. I ended up back inside the alley between Diagon Alley and the Leaky Cauldron, my aiming was pretty good these days. I headed inside, and met Sirius in the front hall.

"Where have you been!" he shouted at me, eyes popping.

"Relax, I went girly shopping." I held up my bags of clothing, and opened one up wide to expose the underwear and bras inside. "Sorry I didn't invite you, next time I'll be sure to bring you along." And I swaggared up the stairs, able to walk again, the potion worked! Now I felt like my old self again, happy and content, living on the edge of insanity and sleep deprivation! I picked out my history of magic textbook, and carried it downstairs to read. I ended up giving James a mini-lesson on what I was reading, because they wouldn't stop bugging me, and they insisted that Giant Wars were more intersting when I told them. At dinner, we ate at Florean's Ice Cream Parlor, then spent a night on the town (er, alley) Gossiping and singing bawdy drinking songs that were so wrong that mothers covered their children's ears while we walked by, and father's covered their wives' ears! I hugged them all good night, then curled up in my room and fell asleep after taking a nice, long shower.


	9. Chapter 9

Walking With A Ghost

Chapter 9

"You did WHAT!" Mundungus Fletcher roared from beside me in the bar. The bartender had turned a white paler than the Christmas Eve snow falling outside the foggy and cracked windows, coated with years of grime and dirt. The floor was slushy with water from our boots, and I drummed my fingers on the polished cedar bar.

"How could you just tell that Muggle, Mikey! ABOUT MAGIC!" 'Dung screeched, his voice cracking at the end.

"Shh! D'you want the whole bar to hear?" I told him in a hushed voice, the bartender at least seemed to understand my sensible way of thinking. So far they had been good listeners, gasping in all the right places, and being quiet like two five year olds at story time. I looked at what I could see of Aberforth through his thick bandages.

"So, you got shot and were stuck in a Muggle hospital. And then you told a doctor you got attatched to about us so you wouldn't have to lose another friend." He confirmed, and I nodded and sighed. I rested my chin on my palm, and took another sip of firewhiskey.

"It sounds a lot worse when you sum it up, but yeah. And don't be judging now, it all goes downhill from here." I muttered, finishing off the whiskey, pushing the empty bottle into a little bunch that our threesome had been steadily working through. I had managed to have a whole firewhiskey, 'Dung had started his second a few minutes ago. "I can prove it too!" And I pulled up the leg of my blue jeans, to reval an old scar, running the entire curve of my knee.

"That's right, I still have a metal knee. It gets quite achy when a storm comes too, that's not an old wives' tale." I commented, as the men looked down at my leg. The room still smelled of smoke, and the ceiling was obscured from the smokey haze rising up from our faces. I never smoked, I kicked the habit years ago. It's disgusting, but I manage to put up with my friends' habits. Mundungus was puffing on that old pipe of his, creating a purple cloud above our heads. The smoke mixed with shades of green, grey, and blue, creating what looked like a gorgeous twilight. This could have been the Hogwarts bewitched ceiling, except that we were in the Hog's Head, not Hogwarts.

It struck me how close I am to my old roots, if I squinted through the blizzard a few miles away, you can make out the shadow of the school's many peaks and towers. The pangs of memory returned again, and how I could no longer return, I'm just a fallen angel, as I tell myself all the time. Not that I was ever an angel, but you get the point. Fallen from grace.

The band was picking up again. I recognized the song again, The Wallflowers. I smiled in the sweet sound of the music, and tapped my forefinger to the beat.

_"So long ago, I don't remember when  
That's when they say I lost my only friend  
Well they said she died easy of a broken heart disease  
As I listened through the cemetery trees  
I seen the sun comin' up at the funeral at dawn  
The long broken arm of human law  
Now it always seemed such a waste  
She always had a pretty face  
So I wondered how she hung around this place."_

Why did they always pick the perfect songs? I wondered, and realized that the lead singer was probably listening to my every word. All the same, I appreciated it. I yawned, and glanced down at my old digital watch, the same one Lily had given me all those years ago. How long has it been since I visited their graves? Since those...incidents. I heard that Sirius escaped, I deduced that the Order must have been hiding him, the Ministry's Auror Headquarters was all too scattered with information from all over. I know about the Order, but I can't go back there. Mundungus doesn't know that I was once a member, and he doesn't have to. Not yet, anyway. Meanwhile, the singer belted out the chorus.

_"Hey, come on try a little  
Nothing is forever  
There's got to be something better than  
In the middle  
But me & Cinderella   
We put it all together We can drive it home  
With one headlight."_

Such lovely lyrics, I and my friends were all entranced, sort of. Of course, putting yourself before your friends is improper grammer, but that's really not my business to be grammatically correct, is it? I'm telling a story here. Snow fell lighter outside, and I could clearly see Hogwarts. Hundreds of towers, I could even tell which was the North Tower. Aberforth noticed where I was looking, and looked with me.

"Those were wonderful days, weren't they?" he commented.

I frowned. "Every era has its flaws and sour spots, even the era of the Marauders. You know that as well as I do, with Lord Voldemort first arising." Aberforth and Mundungus spat out their drinks, and 'Dung frantically crossed himself, spluttering out nonsense sentances.

"Don't say...the name!" Aberforth choked out in shock, and I rolled my eyes. What's the big deal, by being afraid of his name is giving him even more power over you! I sighed, and listened to the band again while they both recovered.

_"She said it's cold  
It feels like Independence Day  
And I can't break away from this parade  
But there's got to be an opening   
Somewhere here in front of me  
Through this maze of ugliness and greed  
And I seen the sign up ahead  
At the county line bridge  
Sayin' all there's good and nothingness is dead  
We'll run until she's out of breath  
She ran until there's nothin' left   
She hit the end it's just her window ledge."_

The singer, in his late twenties or early thirties broke into the chorus again. He may have been a drag queen, but he wasn't that bad. The piano player clunked out his own improvised part, that certainly took a lot of talent. I hummed softly along to the chorus again, it shortly ended and the last verse began again.

_"Well this place is old  
It feels just like a beat up truck  
I turn the engine, but the engine doesn't turn  
Well it smells of cheap wine and cigarettes  
This place is always such a mess  
Sometimes I think I'd like to watch it burn  
I'm so alone, and I feel just like somebody else  
Man, I ain't changed, but I know I ain't the same  
But somewhere here in between the city walls of dyin' dreams   
I think of death it must be killin' me."_

"I still can't belive you told that Muggle. Whatever happened to him?" Mundungus curiously asked me.

"I'll get to that eventually." I told him. "Patience is a virtue, young grasshopper!"

"Aw, shut up! You're what, thirty eight? You haven't gotten any more mature since you turned seventeen." he snapped in defense.

"Now, that's where you're wrong!" I said, and shook my finger at him again. "I've gotten a lot more mature, I just keep it to myself. If I started acting like an adult, who knows what would happen next? You quitting smoking?"

Mundungus sighed. "I said I'll quit eventually. Just not yet, let me enjoy my youth." Aberforth snorted. Youth. Childhood is gone before you turn seven these days.

"So, where'd you leave off? Let's hear more of the story. I know it's gonna be long, but we still have a whole night to kill." Aberforth interrupted our little arguement. He was right, the clock hadn't even hit the next hour already.

I motioned for another drink, popped it open, and began my tale again. "Now, where was I? Ah, yes. We were going back to Hogwarts..."

_"Hey, come on try a little  
Nothing is forever  
There's got to be something better than  
In the middle  
But me & Cinderella   
We put it all together We can drive it home  
With One Headlight."_


End file.
